Dick Dickinson
Dick Dickinson (born January 8th 1964) is a Welsh politician currently serving as the Member of Parliament for Hammersmith, a position he has held since the 1992 general election. He was previously Rail Minister from 1995 to 1997. From 1989 to 2003 he was a member of the Liberal Democrats (or Liberal Unionists as it was known from 2001 - 2004). After the first of two elections in 2003, he defected to the Pirate Party (later UKMP, then UKIP) after the Liberal Unionists were defeated. Upon the Pirate Party gaining the second most amount of seats in the second 2003 general election, he was made the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales. Early life Richard Karl Dickinson was born in Cardiff, Wales on the 8th of January 1964. His father, Nigel Dickinson, died when Richard was just 2, leaving his mother, Emily, to bring him up. After Nigel's death, the family moved to Hammersmith, London. Political career In 1982 he met his future wife, Helen, who was a member of the Liberal Party. At this point, Richard preferred to be known as Dick and took a very keen interest in politics. When the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party merged to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988, Dickinson joined. He ran for the Hammersmith seat in the 1992 general election but lost to the incumbent Labour MP Clive Soley. When Soley died of a heart attack in 1995, Dickinson won the by-election and was now the MP for Hammersmith. He was appointed Rail Minister in the John Major Conservative-Liberal coalition government and stayed in the role until 1997 when Major's government was voted out in favour of Tony Blair. Dickinson had retained his seat by the time the Liberal Democrats (then renamed to the Liberal Unionists) won the 2001 general election. However he wasn't granted a role in the cabinet. As the Liberal Unionists suffered a humiliating defeat in the first 2003 general election, Dickinson defected and joined the newly founded Pirate Party. A second election was called later in the year due to the supposed death of Thomas Owen (in actuality he was just comatose for several months). In this election the Pirates came second place and formed a shadow government. At this point, Dickinson was given the titles of Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and Shadow Secretary of State for Wales. During his time in the Shadow Cabinet, Dickinson has rarely took part in House of Commons debates, choosing to occasionally express his views on social media platforms instead. He cites the reason for missing HoC meetings as a busy family life. Personal life Dickinson's father died of pneumonia in 1966. His mother, Emily, passed away from natural causes in 2000 at the age of 67. Dickinson has 2 siblings, one sister, one brother. He has been married to Helen Dickinson (nee. Johnson) since 1986 but the couple have no children as of yet. Dickinson speaks both fluent English and Welsh. Dickinson has been criticized by members of his party for not speaking out as much as his colleagues against Michael Gove's Conservative government. Dickinson stated in an interview "I don't harass Gove because I simply believe that we all must just get bloody well along with each other! The Gove ministry hasn't been stellar, I will admit that, but we need to be civil in our debates to ensure the public don't take us for a bunch of fools. I'd rather be polite to a bloke like Gove rather than act immature and risk our party going down in the polls."